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Pacific NorthwestTreaty

Treaty of Neah Bay (Makah), 1855

At Neah Bay in 1855, 42 Makah leaders ceded most Makah land for $30,000, with fishing, whaling and sealing rights secured.

Signed
January 31, 1855
Senate
Ratified March 8, 1859
Land given up
about 102,000 acres
Land set aside for the nations
about 20,000 acres
The land in this treaty’s record. Open on the map

What happened

On January 31, 1855, Governor Isaac Stevens signed the Treaty of Neah Bay with chiefs and headmen of the Makah villages at Cape Flattery. HistoryLink says 42 leaders of four of the five traditional Makah villages gave up most of their ancestral lands, from Cape Flattery east to the Hoko River and south to Ozette. They kept a small reservation near Cape Flattery and a promised $30,000 in payments.

Article 4 secured "the right of taking fish and of whaling or sealing at usual and accustomed grounds and stations." HistoryLink calls it the only U.S. treaty to guarantee whaling, and says that unlike some Stevens treaties it "did not lead to armed conflict." The National Park Service says Stevens pressured Puget Sound tribes into signing treaties in 1854 and 1855.

The reservation was later enlarged to approximately 27,000 acres, according to HistoryLink. It adds that the treaty's rights language has been the subject of many legal battles, beginning in the late 1800s and continuing into the 2010s. The Supreme Court's Washington v. Fishing Vessel Association (1979) lists it among the six Stevens treaties at issue.

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error

What the sources say, and how this was checked

Well supported by the sources below.

  1. give up most of their ancestral lands, keeping only a small reservation at Cape Flattery, in return for a promised $30,000 in annuity paymentsMakah leaders and Territorial Gov. Stevens sign treaty at Neah Bay on January 31, 1855 (HistoryLink Essay 5364)
  2. The right of taking fish and of whaling or sealing at usual and accustomed grounds and stations is further secured to said IndiansTreaty with the Makah, 1855 (Oklahoma State University Tribal Treaties Database)
  3. Stevens pressured Puget Sound tribes into signing treaties that confined them to reservationsWalla Walla Council (1855), National Park Service
  4. Treaty of Neah Bay (12 Stat. 939); Treaty with the Yakamas (12 Stat. 951); and Treaty of Olympia (12 Stat. 971)Washington v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Ass'n, 443 U.S. 658 (1979)

Research notes. This is marked as negotiated because the cited sources do not describe coercion at Neah Bay itself; the National Park Service says Stevens pressured Puget Sound tribes in 1854-55, and the Makah treaty belongs to that series. HistoryLink says the reservation was later enlarged to approximately 27,000 acres. The treaty was ratified March 8, 1859, and proclaimed April 18, 1859.

What the treaty did to the land

About 102,000 acres given up. about 20,000 acres recognized, kept or set aside for the nations. Each shape is a numbered area in the federal government’s 1899 record of land cessions.

What happened next

Everything the record holds about this land and this treaty, in order: what earlier agreements said, what this one did, and what the United States, the courts and the nations did afterwards.

  1. 1855

    This treaty

    About 102,000 acres ceded to the United States by the Makah. About 20,000 acres set aside as a reservation for the Makah

    At Neah Bay in 1855, 42 Makah leaders ceded most Makah land for $30,000, with fishing, whaling and sealing rights secured.

  2. 1859

    This treaty

    Ratified by the Senate

  3. 1900

    Promise broken

    Stevens treaty fishing rights: Boldt (1974) and Washington v. Fishing Vessel Ass'n (1979)

    Treaties guaranteed tribal fishing at usual places 'in common with' citizens; Washington limited it for decades until the 1974 Boldt ruling.

  4. 1974

    In court

    United States v. Washington (Boldt decision)

    In 1974 Judge Boldt held that "in common with" lets western Washington treaty tribes take up to half the harvestable fish.

  5. 1979

    In court

    Washington v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Ass'n

    In 1979 the Court held the 1850s treaties secure tribes a share of each fish run, divided in roughly equal shares.

  6. 2018

    In court

    Washington v. United States (culverts case)

    An equally divided Supreme Court in 2018 left in place a ruling that Washington must fix state culverts that violate tribal treaty fishing rights.

The law behind it

The legal ideas behind the decisions, and related records without a date. Court cases and laws with a date are in what happened next, above.

  • Legal doctrine

    canons of construction

    Courts read ambiguous treaties in favor of tribes and as the Indians would have understood them, rules the Supreme Court has repeated for more than a century.

  • Legal doctrine

    reserved rights

    Treaties are 'a grant of right from' tribes, not to them: reserved hunting and fishing rights survived cessions, statehood and even termination.

  • Legal doctrine

    treaty fishing rights

    Treaties that reserved fishing rights have been read as rights the tribes kept, not gifts: Winans (1905), Fishing Vessel (1979) and Mille Lacs (1999).

Who is doing the work today

The nations connected to this treaty come first, then groups returning land and defending treaty rights. Support goes directly to them.

This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:

Native legal and land defense, nationally

Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.

Sources

  1. digitreaties.org/treaties/treaty/176960703reference work
  2. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-makah-1855-0682reference work
    Ratified Mar. 8, 1859. | Proclaimed Apr. 18, 1859.

Corrections to this record

  • date ratified was listed as “”; corrected from treaties.okstate.eduRatified Mar. 8, 1859. | Proclaimed Apr. 18, 1859.
Research notes

Stat./Kappler pages.

Shapes are approximate and are not legal descriptions of land, title or jurisdiction.